’Cats look to click on all cylinders against Wofford

The University of New Hampshire football team also struggled offensively, particularly in the second half.

In addition to slowing down Wofford’s run-oriented attack in next Saturday’s FCS playoff game, the Wildcats must also find a way to get into the end zone against a defense that allows only 17.7 points per game.

“It was a combination of things,” said leading receiver R.J. Harris, who had only two catches against Towson. “Offensively we just couldn’t get clicking. We were asking the defense to go out there and get a stop on every drive. That’s a difficult task.”

UNH was held to 345 yards by Towson, its second lowest total of the season. Trailing by two points at halftime, the Wildcats were outscored, 34-7, in the second half.

“We’ve played hard all season,” said leading rusher Nico Steriti. “We’ve played everybody tough. (It) just got away from us. We got out of our game plan and we didn’t execute. It was a tough one to take. It was a big loss.”

Rarely do the Wildcats struggle on both sides of the ball in the same game. They gave up 415 yards rushing against Towson, which dominated time of possession (39 minutes, 25 seconds to 20:35 for UNH).

“We’ve had issues in previous games that we’ve lost of the offense and defense not clicking at the same time,” said offensive guard and co-captain Chris Zarkoskie. “A lot of things went wrong. It wasn’t the New Hampshire way of playing football.”

“We have to compete a little bit better than we did last Saturday,” said senior cornerback Dontra Peters. “On the defensive side of the ball we didn’t tackle as well as we wanted to. That’s something we stress day in and day out. We just didn’t get the job done.”

Towson forced three turnovers and punted only once.

“It was a chain of events,” Steriti said. “Things just trickled down all around. We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to run the ball harder. We’ve got to throw the ball. We’ve got to catch it. We’ve got to do everything right.”

“None of us really played that well,” said linebacker and senior co-captain Matt Evans. “I thought we had a good week of preparation. We’ve got to be better.”

Coming off the 64-35 loss, which snapped a six-game winning streak, the Wildcats were worried their season might be over.

But the next day they received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament which means they’ll be making their ninth straight appearance in the postseason, the longest active streak in the nation.

“I thought we responded every time we had some adversity during the year,” said coach Sean McDonnell. “It’s a credit to the kids. They stuck with it, and credit to people for figuring out that we’re a pretty good football team.”

Now No. 11 UNH (8-3) will have to prove it against an opponent team that relies heavily on the run. Ninth-ranked Wofford (8-3) has rushed for 3,380 yards this year and passed for just 574.

Senior fullback Eric Breitenstein has more yards (1,653) than the liberal arts college has undergrads (1,536).

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” McDonnell said. “They’ve got a very good football team. They run the ball extremely well.”

Contrast that with UNH, which is about as balanced offensively as it gets. The Wildcats have run for 2,578 yards and passed for 2,604.

“As an offense we just have to come together and work on that,” Harris said. “We know what we have to do. We have another week off. We have to take advantage of it and really dial in and get ready for Wofford.”

The Wildcats don’t think last Saturday’s performance will have a carry-over effect.

“We can’t let our confidence take a hit,” Zarkoskie said, “because we need to win the next football game.”

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After several players were injured against Towson, the Wildcats welcomed another bye week even though they just had one between the William & Mary and Towson games.

Tight end Harold Spears (knee) is likely out for the season, according to McDonnell.

Receiver Jimmy Giansante, Peters (ankle) and quarterbacks Andy Vailas and Sean Goldrich were also hurt in the regular-season finale.